"You give them the link?" said one of the faculty. "But they can't understand that."

"Why not?" I replied. "I did."

This was met with silence. My attitude is, well, I am a physician. I am not a lawyer. Yet I have to follow the pain law. Actually we all have to follow all the laws in our country. We say ignorance of the law is no excuse. Yet then the attitude of the pain specialists at UW was that the law is too confusing for my rural patients.

I think UW is wrong and I think that it is disrespectful to patients. Treat them as adults. Treat them as smart. Treat them as if they can understand and you will get respect back. And if they trust you they will then tell you when they do not understand or need something translated from medicalese to english.

I worked with a patient who works every day. She is in a wheelchair, a motorized one. She has cerebral palsy and can't talk much. And she is smart too.

This election is about the United States population being smart. They know something is very wrong and they want it fixed. I think that Citizens United needs to be taken down. Corporations are not people, unless the CEO can be the physical representation of the corporation and go to jail when the corporation lies and steals. Wells Fargo, I am talking to you. I am taking my money to another bank. Pay reparations. And I do not forgive you. The United States population is sick and tired of the rich getting richer and corporations stealing from people for profit. Democrats and republicans are sick and tired of it. We are not going to take it any more. If you have gotten rich from corporate underhand theft, lies and confusing people, give the money back. Because you can buy an island, but if the United States population rises up to hunt for you, there is no where in the world you can hide.

It is time for corporations to give the United States population the government back. Or we will take it. Because every patient I have ever taken care of in over twenty five years is smart. That is not to say we don't all do stupid things. And some people won't change. But in the end, everyone can learn and everyone can change. We are all smart.

Category:

Of course Citizens United is completely evil - and it's disheartening to know that Donald Trump has hired one of its architects to join his campaign. If I was a Trump supporter hoping for change, I'd be gutted. To her credit, Hillary Clinton will within the first 30 days attempt a Constitutional Amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision. It's not that gutsy a move: the last successful Constitutional Amendment took place in 1971. That's 45 years ago. It's not easy to do - by design.

Guns, which Hillary Clinton hates, will be taken care of by Executive Order. This was revealed in WikiLeaks.

So honestly, regardless of which way the wind blows, Citizens United is here to stay, but Hillary can shrug her shoulders and say she did what she promised: put it to a wide-range of people on the corporate payroll to vote on.

"The United States population is sick and tired of the rich getting richer and corporations stealing from people for profit" - if this was the case, they would be voting hard against a regime which saw one of the biggest upward concentrations of wealth in American history. It was a great time to be alive, the Obama years - if you were in the 1%. And there are some citizenry who quietly point out that all these things the Clinton/Obama administration rail against - income inequality, unaffordable healthcare and so forth - could have been fixed by those same two while they were in power, rather than arguing they need yet more votes and yet more power and more time in office to start looking into this. BRB ANOTHER SPEECH FOR GOLDMAN SACHS."

The truth of the matter is there are sensible Republicans out there who are socially liberal and fiscally conservative. There are Democrats who are quite progressive and had plans to start radically changing how we spend our money - on universal healthcare and universal university education for a start - which Hillary tut-tutted about - those 'basement dwellers' in mom's basement who have heard of Scandinavia but can't find it on the map and their stupid unachievable idle dreams.

Hillary's leaked emails include her fervently promising the bankers that pay her a quarter million a hit for a speech that she will absolutely block legalized marijuana because where it's been legalized, Big Pharma and Big Alcohol make less profits. Any NFL player will tell you weed helps with chronic abuse to the body and serious pain without the risks of opiates. But you can grow weed, oxycontin doesn't grow on trees. Even though most people want the weed-related Prison Planet pipeline to shut down.

There were any of a number of alternatives in the primaries.

There are STILL alternatives in the main election.

But yet, US politics has devolved into negative politicking, and identity politics. To clarify, not only are we not talking about a candidate's platform - but we're talking about the OTHER party's platform in negative terms.

Rarely do I hear "vote for Senator Blumpf, he supports (clearly stated position and clearly stated policy objective)" but "Vote for Senator Blumpf, because his opponent, Mr. Bingle, is a slimy possible communist who can't prove he ISN'T A RAT EATING SPACE ALIEN IN DISGUISE. Give Blumpf money. Now. Right now! WE MUST STOP BINGLE AND HIS POTENTIAL ALIEN RAT EATER INVASION RIGHT NOW!"

I mean, for God's sake - I know people who are voting for Trump because they believe lower taxes and repatriating money and not signing in leglislation like the Trans Pacific Partnership which fast-tracks corporate legal takeover of America would be fantastic for the economy, and really do not give a shit what the man has said in private twenty years ago.

But remember, if you vote for Trump, it's because you are a racist, sexist, homophobe who wants to relocate every Mexican south of a new wall and have no issues with someone normalizing rape. Or, for Trump supporters, if you're not intersted in voting for him, it's because you want to see America overrun by terrorists and foreign labor, our Constitution dismantled and ourselves sold to the highest bidder.

Senator Clinton is indeed one of the best candidates for office we've ever seen. Someone who has spent literally DECADES doing all manner of jobs in government and who's actually lived two terms of a Presidency alongside Bill Clinton. If you watched the last debate, you saw a highly competent person ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS SHE WAS ASKED while her opponent stalked around the stage like a pissed off orangutan trying to change the subject to how we need to blow the shit out of ISIS.

But the biggest argument I've heard in terms of voting for her is SHE ISN'T TRUMP. She doesn't represent bigotry, homophobia, racism, etc. etc. etc. and has been approved by the red-hair and problematic glasses brigade and if you don't vote for her RIGHT NOW you might as well tattoo a swastika on your forehead. And after all, don't you want to see a woman in the White House? (Her main campaign slogan a while back I might add).

For Christ's sake, and I mean that in its literal sense, we're talking about Nazi cartoon frogs and how big Trump's PENIS is likely to be. We're holding Trump up as an example of What Men Are and Why They Need To Be Replaced By Women Right Now, and people who decry Hillary are making horrible remarks about how she's not good enough for her cheating husband so she shouldn't be good enough for the country.

Hands up - how many people do you think right now have even READ the issues and the proposals of both candidates? My guess is less than five percent. Most people have decided they either want to be seen as with-it, feminist and non-racist non homophobic "good, approved people" or red-blooded, patriotic, Constitution-protecting stalwarts of American freedoms. I've read on Facebook people openly saying that a vote for one person or another is:

- Smashing the "glass ceiling" in this country for women

- A referendum on how well we thought Obama did

- A message to "racists, sexists, homophobes"

- A declaration of respect for Constitutional Principles

- The only way we'll see a multiple felonious traitor see the inside of a courtroom

as opposed to what it was damn well supposed to be, which is a directive to hire one of several possible candidates to hold office based on the stated principles and policies with which he or she intends to run the country.

This country isn't showing its intelligence right now. If it had, it would have put in Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders against Jeb Bush or Kasich - but instead, we're in this position where bashing someone's face in with sock full of rocks is considered a viable political act, and we're trying to NOT vote for the WRONG person.

Make no mistake, this election is about a whole parcel of negative emotions. Intelligence flew out the window years ago.